Eureka Seven is considered to be one of the best mecha anime of the 2000s as well as simply a modern classic in general. The series Listeners was hoped by many to be a successor to it, and given all the talent involved, it certainly should have been. Unfortunately for those wanting a great musical mecha anime, the result was something less than harmonious.
Listeners failed to make much an impression at all besides a bad one, with its plot being both confusing and far more interested in world-building than telling a story. It was also filled to the brim with failed symbolism, none of which amounted to much in way of depth. Here's a further look back at the series two years later and why it failed to reach its true potential.
What Was MAPPA's Listeners?
The story of Listeners is in a post-apocalyptic future in which humanity is ravaged by monstrous creatures known as the Earless. Combating these gigantic beasts are Players -- legendary heroes who pilot giant mechs in order to protect humanity. Hoping to one day become one of the Players is a boy named Echo, who's inspired by their heroism and fame after witnessing one of their epic battles.
One day, Echo discovers a strange girl named μ (Mu), an amnesiac who has an auxiliary port on her back. This biological feature denotes her as a potential Player, instantly intriguing Echo. Together, he and Mu set out for adventure, fame and fortune, hoping to discover the truth behind Mu's past.
The show's premise definitely has some of the same narrative DNA as Eureka Seven and RahXephon, namely with the mysterious amnesiac girl and musical elements. Despite this, the show never achieved the success or recognition of these other two anime, and those who did watch it were generally unimpressed with what they saw.
Why Was Listeners Such a Bad Anime?
Listeners had some great talent behind it, which only makes the sting of its actual quality even worse. One of the writers was Dai Sato, who worked on the aforementioned Eureka Seven as well as several other classic anime such as Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain and Ghost in the Shell. Likewise, the animation studio behind it was the now legendary MAPPA, whose catalog now includes Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and the final season of Attack On Titan. Nevertheless, this wealth of talent came together to produce a truly bad series that tried to be way more than what it was and lacked any of the charm of its inspirations.
Half of the series is far too focused on world-building, which doesn't exactly work given the fact that the show is only 12 episodes long. On top of that, despite being fairly uninterested in exploring any of them, the show quickly introduces several disparate concepts in a haphazard, slapdash way. One weird element is that Listeners constantly shows off how different concepts and characters are named after or based on actual musicians, but given how underdeveloped everything else is, this feels both tacked on and superfluous.
Moreover, the characters themselves are likewise underdeveloped and shallow. None of them stand out beyond being one-note caricatures, making most of Listeners' emotional beats fall A-flat. Even the music doesn't stand up, with the majority of the OST (one exception being the intro song from ACCAMER) being fairly forgettable.
This all saw many online viewers drop Listeners quickly, with few bothering to stick around after the first few confusing episodes. Thus, the show came and went in Spring 2020, at a time when more people were binging anime than ever. Listeners has been more or less deservedly forgotten ever since. However, those interested in attempting to make sense of the story can do so by streaming the show on Hulu or buying individual episodes on Amazon Prime Video.